On the transmutation of Am in a fast lead-cooled system

Abstract

Characteristics of the equilibrium fuel cycle for the core or a blanket of ADS having the structure of the core of a fast lead-cooled reactor of type BREST (Russian abbreviation for 'Bystryy Reaktor so Svintsovym Teplonositelem') in a mode of americium transmutation are calculated. Americium loading was taken 5% of heavy atoms. Keeping the average multiplication factor the same as in a standard equilibrium cycle, reactivity swing over 1 year's microcycle is about 1%, that demands partial fuel reloading with a periodicity of about one month. For one year of operation, 61 kg of americium is destroyed, and due to increased 238 Pu content, americium is mainly converted to fission products. Thus in a system of 1 GWt (thermal), 87 kg of americium can be transmuted yearly. The estimate of the reactivity void effect has shown that it increases to 0.6% almost linearly with the void fraction increasing up to 25% and reaches its maximum of 0.7% at a void fraction of about 50%. Application of similar strategy for ADS with a sub-criticality level ≈0.96-0.98 can essentially relax safety problems related to positive void effects.